“I think it’s stupid,” Wade said. “It’s stupid. I guess there’s nothing else to talk about. But LeBron is used to it. He’s had the spotlight on him for a long time, so everything he’s involved with is gonna be a topic. He understands that. His comment recently was just to shut it down.

“People can’t expect you to be best friends with all your teammates. You know how many teammates we’ve had over our career? People don’t have that many best friends. You’re teammates with some guys, cordial with other guys, friendly with some guys — that’s just the way it is in everything. It’s a lot made of nothing.”

Wade said players generally find things like that amusing, but in some cases it can become a legitimate issue.

“When you’re going through a season like that, you don’t need it,” Wade said of Cleveland, which is in its first year with James, Love and Kyrie Irving. “There are a lot of distractions already and this is just an added distraction that you don’t need at all. That’s all it is in Cleveland right now is a distraction over something that doesn’t mean nothing.

“It’s something you shouldn’t have to talk about. If you get enough of those, then it becomes a problem. It’s a distraction to have to sit down after wins or losses or whatever and have to talk about are you buddy-buddy with this guy and what’s y’all’s relationship. Why are we talking about that? Let’s talk about wins and losses and whether we’re playing well. It becomes a distraction, but at the same time, you’ve gotta find stories. Stuff gets boring. People gotta have stuff to talk about. What was the outcome? Are they friends or are they not friends? I didn’t watch the coverage.”

“Oh, thank you,” Wade joked. “He’s been in this life so long that he’s had to — more so than other people, he keeps a small group around him. You see that in his business partners and his life and his four horsemen and his friends. He keeps a tight group. He’s never been the guy that opens up to be best friends with so many people. He has a select few. Some people don’t have that many. He has three. I know a lot of people that don’t have one or two, so he’s winning.”

All of this nonsense begs the question: HOW GOOD OF FRIENDS ARE YOU WITH GORAN DRAGIC? GOOD FRIENDS? OK FRIENDS? BFFS?